August 2025: After MANY rounds of revision (5!) DR. Chelsea Monheim and Karen Wetzel published our paper entitled "The Role of Shame and Spontaneous Self-Affirmation Among People with Concealable Stigmatized Identities" in the Journal of Social Psychology

August 2025: Karen Wetzel's received a grant in aid for her disssertation entitled "Cueing Safety or Salience? The Impact of Weight-based Safety Cues on Belonging and Identity Threat" from the Society for the Scientific Study of Social Issues.  

June 2025: Chelsea Monheim successfully defended her dissertation entitled "Self-Affirmation Among People with Visible and Concealable Stigmatized Identities" Congrats DR. Monheim

June 2025: Brandon Martin successfully defended his master's entitled "Don’t sweat it, dude: men’s cardiovascular and endocrine reactivity to masculine versus weight stigma threats." Congrats Brandon, we are very proud of you! 

April 2025: Dr. Himmelstein's NSF CAREER award was funded! 

April 2025: Karen Wetzel's successfully defended her dissertation prospectus entitled "Weight-Related Safety Cues". Congrats Karen on being ABD, we are very proud of you! 

March 2025: Brandon Martin's  paper entitled "The role of masculinity and weight stigma in men's body dissatisfaction" was accepted for publication at the Psychology of Men and Masculinities. 

March 2025: Karen Wetzel successfully defended her dissertation prospectus entitled "Weight-related safety cues" Congrats Karen, we are very proud of you! 

February 2025: Karen Wetzel continues to crush it! Her paper entitled "Bracing for Impact: An intensive longitudinal investigation of weight stigma, vigilant coping, and maladaptive eating " was accepted for publication at Social Science & Medicine. This means she's officially achieved the trifecta --three first author pubs in our top three Health Psychology journals. Way to go, Karen! 

February 2025: Karen Wetzel's paper entitled "Weight stigma in gynecological care among cisgender women " was accepted for publication at Obesity Science and Practice

January 2025: Chelsea Monheim accepted a tenure-track assistant professor position at Franklin College! WE ARE SO PROUD OF YOU!

October 2024:  Dr. Himmelstein presented an overview of work in SWAG lab at Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec for the International Weight Bias Summit. She helped set priorities in weight bias research for the next five years along with the top researchers in weight bias from all over the world.
September 2024: Chelsea Monheim's  paper entitled "A concealable intervention for a concealed group: Applying self-affirmation interventions to people with concealable stigmatized identities"  was accepted for publication in Social and Personality Psychology Compass.

July 2024: Karen Wetzel's paper entitled "Weight Stigma is Uniquely Tied to Maladaptive Eating Across Racial, Ethnic, and Gender Groups " was accepted for publication at Appetite

July 2024: Karen Wetzel's paper entitled "Women’s Relationships with Healthcare and Providers: The Role of Weight Stigma in Healthcare & Weight Bias Internalization" was accepted for publication at Annals of Behavioral Medicine

June 2024: Chelsea Monheim successfully defended her dissertation prospectus entitled "Self-Affirmation Among People with Concealable Stigmatized Identities." Congrats Chelsea, we are very proud of you! 

June 2024: Brandon Martin's paper entitled "The impact of weight stigma and masculinity on men's healthcare engagement" was accepted for publication at Stigma & Health

April 2024: Andrew Jack received the Outstanding Junior Award from the Kent State Department of Psychological Sciences.

February 2024:  Dr. Himmelstein received an early career award for outstanding contributions to the field from the Social Personality & Health Network at the Society for Personality and Social Psychology annual meeting in San Diego!

February 2024:   Dr. Himmelstein  presented a poster entitled "Stigma, Weight, & Gender: Experiences with Weight Stigma in Healthcare in Cisgender, Transgender, and Non-Binary Individuals"  at the annual meeting for the  Society for Personality and Social Psychology annual meeting in San Diego.

February 2024:  Karen Wetzel   presented a poster entitled "When It's Your Own Community: Weight-related Vigilance in Queer Spaces Among Gay Men"  at the annual meeting for the  Society for Personality and Social Psychology annual meeting in San Diego.

February 2024:  Brandon Martin  presented a poster entitled "Weight stigma and masculinity as contributors to body dissatisfaction and beliefs about body weight among men"  at the annual meeting for the  Society for Personality and Social Psychology annual meeting in San Diego.

February 2024:  Dr. Himmelstein  presented a poster on behalf of undergraduate Riley Smith entitled "At the Crossroads: Transgender Patient Experiences with Weight Stigma and Transgender Bias in Healthcare"  at the annual meeting for the  Society for Personality and Social Psychology annual meeting in San Diego.

February 2024:   Chelsea Monheim  presented a poster entitled "The Role of Shame and Spontaneous Self-Affirmation Among People with Concealable Stigmatized Identities"  at the annual meeting for the  Society for Personality and Social Psychology annual meeting in San Diego.

February 2024:  Karen Wetzel  presented a poster entitled "When It's Your Own Community: Weight-related Vigilance in Queer Spaces Among Gay Men"  at Group Processes and Intergroup Relations Preconference at the annual meeting for the  Society for Personality and Social Psychology annual meeting in San Diego.

February 2024:  Chelsea Monheim was a runner up for a  Graduate Student Poster Award at the annual meeting for the  Society for Personality and Social Psychology annual meeting in San Diego.

November2023:  Chelsea Monheim  received a diversity travel award for the the annual meeting for the  Society for Personality and Social Psychology annual meeting in San Diego.

November 2023:  Karen Wetzel  received a graduate travel award for the the annual meeting for the  Society for Personality and Social Psychology annual meeting in San Diego.

September 2023:  Brandon Martin won an APAGS/ Psi Chi junior scientist fellowship. 

June 2023:  Dr. Himmelstein presented a 15 minute talk on  on "We Are Not the Same:  Weight-Stigma Across the Weight Spectrum" at the annual meeting for the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues in Denver.

June 2023:  Karen Wetzel presented a talk entitled "Weight Discrimination is Uniquely Tied to Eating: An Analysis of the Relationship between Different Forms of Discrimination and Eating Behaviors across Identities" at a larger symposium entitled "Weight stigma in healthcare and associations with health outcomes"  at the annual meeting for the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues in Denver.

June 2023:  Chelsea Monheim presented a poster entitled "Mechanisms Linking Concealable Stigmatized Identity and Health: Amplifiers and Buffers"  at the annual meeting for the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues in Denver.

June 2023:  Brandon Martin presented a poster entitled "Men's weight stigma experiences in healthcare: Influencing attitudes and engagement"  at the annual meeting for the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues in Denver.

June 2023:  Karen Wetzel's paper entitled "Healthcare Avoidance as Vigilance: A Model of Maladaptive Eating Behaviors due to Weight Stigma in Healthcare, Avoidance, and Internalization Among Women" was accepted for publication at Stigma + Health

May 2023:  Karen Wetzel's paper entitled "Constant Vigilance: The Impact of Weight Stigma, Vigilance, and Internalization on Maladaptive Eating Behaviors" was accepted for publication at Health Psychology

May 2023:  Chelsea Monheim's paper entitled "Mechanisms linking concealable stigmatized identity and health: Amplifiers and coping mechanisms" was accepted for publication at Stigma & Health

May 2023: Alexis Richeson received the Outstanding Senior award from the Department of Psychological Sciences

April  2023:  Samantha Loar will present a poster entitled "Male Role Norms Are Associated with Sexual Aggression Through Precarious Manhood Beliefs"  at the Undergraduate Research Symposium at Kent State.

April  2023: Alexis Richeson will present a poster entitled "Purity or Poison? Purity Culture Messaging in Sex Education is Associated with Sexual Trauma and Maladaptive Eating"  at the Undergraduate Research Symposium at Kent State.

April 2023:  Karen Wetzel won an outstanding oral presentation award for her talk entitled "At the Intersection of Weight, Race, and Sex: Maladaptive Eating is Related to Experiencing Weight Discrimination more than to Racial or Gender Discrimination"  at the Graduate Research Symposium at Kent State.

April 2023:  Karen Wetzel presented a talk entitled "At the Intersection of Weight, Race, and Sex: Maladaptive Eating is Related to Experiencing Weight Discrimination more than to Racial or Gender Discrimination"  at the Graduate Research Symposium at Kent State.

April  2023:  Chelsea Monheim  presented a talk  entitled "Mechanisms Linking Concealable Stigmatized Identity and Health: Amplifiers and Buffers" at the Graduate Research Symposium at Kent State.

April 2023:  Brandon Martin  presented a poster entitled "Men's weight stigma experiences in healthcare: Influencing healthcare attitudes, avoidance, and engagement"  at the Graduate Research Symposium at Kent State.

April 2023: Alexis Richeson received an honorable mention for her NSF-GRFP.

March 2023: Alexis Richeson accepted an admission offer to the PhD program in Prevention Science at Rutgers Camden with Dr. Charlotte Markey.

March 2023: Dr. Himmelstein's a co-I on a funded grant from the Pediatrics Research Fund at Eastern VA Medical School entitled Development of a Pediatric Resident Workshop: "How to Effectively and Sensitively Talk to Patients and Families about Body Weight"

March 2023: Dr. Himmelstein was interviewed for a story in "National Geographic" featuring several SWAG lab publications.  Check it out here.

February 2023:  Chelsea Monheim & Karen Wetzel were admitted to the Summer Institute for Social & Personality Psychology. This is a highly competitive intensive summer workshop put on every other year by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology.  

February 2023:  Chelsea Monheim was a runner up for a  Graduate Student Poster Award  for the annual meeting for the Society for Personality and Social Psychology in Atlanta. 

February 2023:  Dr. Himmelstein presented a symposium on Weight Stigma in Healthcare: Perspectives from Medical Students, Physicians, and Patients at the annual meeting for the Society for Personality and Social Psychology in Atlanta.  Karen Wetzel and Sharon Aber are also authors on the talk. 

February 2023:  Karen Wetzel presented a poster entitled "Constant Vigilance: Weight Stigma Impacts Disordered Eating via Vigilance, Especially Among Those High in Self-Stigma"  at the annual meeting for the Society for Personality and Social Psychology in Atlanta.  

February 2023:  Chelsea Monheim presented a poster entitled "Mechanisms Linking Concealable Stigmatized Identity and Health: Amplifiers and Buffers"  at the annual meeting for the Society for Personality and Social Psychology in Atlanta.  

February 2023:  Samantha Loar presented a poster entitled "Male Role Norms Are Associated with Sexual Aggression Through Precarious Manhood Beliefs"  at the annual meeting for the Society for Personality and Social Psychology in Atlanta.  

February 2023: Alexis Richeson presented a poster entitled "Purity or Poison? Purity Culture Messaging in Sex Education is Associated with Sexual Trauma and Maladaptive Eating"  at the annual meeting for the Society for Personality and Social Psychology in Atlanta.  

January 2023:  Samantha Loar made it to round two of the Undergraduate Student Poster Award Competition for the annual meeting for the Society for Personality and Social Psychology in Atlanta.  

January 2023:  Chelsea Monheim made it to round two of the Graduate Student Poster Award Competition for the annual meeting for the Society for Personality and Social Psychology in Atlanta.  

January 2023:  Dr. Himmelstein is an associate editor for a special issue of Social and Personality Psychology Compass on the  the social and personality psychology of COVID-19

November 2022:  Samantha Loar was selected for an undergraduate diversity travel award for the annual meeting for the Society for Personality and Social Psychology in Atlanta.  

November 2022: Alexis Richeson was selected for an undergraduate diversity travel award for the annual meeting for the Society for Personality and Social Psychology in Atlanta.  

October 2022:  Chelsea Monheim's paper entitled "Democrats and Independents Stigmatize People with COVID-19  Greater Compared to Republicans" was accepted for publication at the Journal of Social Psychology

October 2022: Dr. Himmelstein presented a workshop entitled "Weight Stigma: A Deeper Dive and Strategies for Reduction" to the Young Women's Alliance.

October 2022: Dr. Himmelstein was invited to guest edit a special issue on COVID for Social Psychology and Personality Compass. 

October 2022: Alexis Richeson won second place for her group at the Three Minute Thesis competition.

October 2022: Alexis Richeson and Samantha Loar presented their research at the Three Minute Thesis competition.

September 2022: Alexis Richeson received a $500 research grant from the Undergraduate Research Council 

September 2022: Samantha Loar received a $500 research grant from the Undergraduate Research Council 

August 2022: Brandon Martin joined SWAG Lab as a graduate student. Welcome  Brandon!

June 2022:  Dr. Himmelstein presented an overview of our research at DLX a celebration of Dish Lab turning 10 at UCLA

May 2022: Dr. Himmelstein received a Blue award for $20,000 from the The Kent State University Brain Health Research Institute  for her project with Dr. Kristen Knepp at Northeast Ohio Medical School and Sean Phelan at the Mayo Clinic for their project entitled "Development and Pilot Testing of a Weight Stigma Reduction Program for Medical Students"

May 2022: Alexis Richeson received the Outstanding Junior award from the Department of Psychological Sciences 

May 2022: Shannon Aber received the Outstanding Senior award from the Department of Psychological Sciences 

May 2022: Dr. Himmelstein's NSF ADVANCE Catalyst: Tracking Recognition and Engagement of Women in Low-Prestige/High-Workload Service Activities at Kent State University was funded!

April 2022: Samantha Loar received a competitive fellowship at the Brain Health Research Institute for summer 2022

April 2022: Chelsea Monheim's paper on the effects of following public health protocol on COVID Stigma was accepted at Stigma & Health

April 2022: Shannon Aber presented on weight stigma in reproductive care at the undergraduate research symposium

April 2022: Karen Wetzel presented on the relationship between experiences with weight stigma and eating via vigilance coping as moderated by internalized weight bias at the graduate research symposium

April 2022: Brandon Martin will be joining SWAG lab as a graduate student in Fall 2022, welcome Brandon!

March 2022: Chelsea Monheim received the Judie Falls Lasser Graduate Research Award

March  2022: Alexis Richeson was accepted into the competitive SURE program (Summer Undergraduate Research Experience) at Kent State

March 2022: Samantha Loar was accepted into the competitive SURE program (Summer Undergraduate Research Experience) at Kent State

March 2022: Karen Wetzel received a pre-doctoral grant from the Applied Psychology Center

February 2022: Dr. Himmelstein was appointed treasurer of the Social-Personality Health Network

February 2022: Dr. Himmelstein was appointed to the convention committee for SPSP 

February 2022: Karen Wetzel and Dr. Himmelstein presented on the effects of different forms of discrimination on eating among groups with multiple devalued identities  at SPSP in San Francisco 

February 2022: Chelsea Monheim presented on the effects of following public health protocol on COVID Stigma at SPSP in San Francisco